


Turn it Off

by Madras_Eclipse



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen, Urban Legends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:41:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24828490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madras_Eclipse/pseuds/Madras_Eclipse
Summary: Ren, Futaba and Morgana investigate an urban legend from the comforts of Leblanc's attic.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	Turn it Off

**_TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF_ **

* * *

"...and that's supposed to have a 1/65536 chance of happening when you boot up an old copy."

Futaba was sitting cross-legged, with Ren and Morgana behind her, while holding up a copy of _Shin Megami Tensei,_ while a Super Famicom was plugged into the TV on Ren's dresser. She claimed it was a first-run copy that she got at a game store in Akihabara, after hearing about the legend while walking the streets there one day.

"I dunno," Morgana said dismissively, "sounds like a hoax to me. If the chance is _that_ low, and it's only happened to a couple people online, they probably just made it up to get attention."

"Even so," Futaba held the copy in the boy's faces, "it's a first-run of _Shin Megami Tensei!_ You don't find these just laying around everyday!"

"Uh-huh, yeah," Ren said, "and how much of Sojiro's money did you spend in order to buy it?"

Futaba pursed her lips.

"Thought so." He took another sip of Dr. Salt NEO.

Futaba looked at the game again, then turned back toward them. "You know, if it's an urban legend... but then, the Phantom Thieves are pretty much an urban legend, right?"

"You say that like we weren't even real," Morgana joked.

"No, really, we're legends. I mean, that teacher at Shujin, the painter, the mob boss, Medjed, Okumura, Makoto's sis, Shido... all the way up to shooting an evil God in the head, and yet people are still chatting away online about what actually happened or whether or not it even did happen and it wasn't all just some big elaborate hoax."

Morgana's ears flattened. "I wonder if that's a good thing if people argue over us instead of finding their justice. Since we took the public's treasure and all."

Ren smirked. "I think it is."

Morgana and Futaba looked at him, a bit surprised.

"Think of it this way: we were a bunch of kids who got rolled over by the system, who went into a cognitive world to fix the problems that society wouldn't, and it led up to facing a distorted manifestation of the public's desires that thought of himself as God."

Morgana was confused. "And..."

"A normal person would hear that and either a. disregard it as fake or b. completely freak out and spread rumors. So they go online and debate with others about it to try and made head-or-tails of it. Of course people are going to disagree, but that's not the point: the point is people are talking about us and our actions, rather than just either heaping praise and reliance on us to fix all their problems or just sweep us under the rug completely. They'll talk about our methods, and in doing so they'll find courage to take on their problems. I'm sure people centuries from now will still be talking about us because of that."

Futaba thought "...you know, I never thought about that. I guess it's better if we kept people guessing rather than just being flat good or bad guys. At least, I wouldn't want to be up there on Good Morning Japan openly talking about helping brainwashing people in another world next to ours, there'd be chaos in the streets if I said something like that existed."

"I don't think you'd get in front of a crowd for any reason," Morgana snarked.

"Oh, shut it, Mona."

Ren thought for another moment, then said, "you know, you remember all the shadows in the palaces and Mementos?"

"What about them?" Futaba asked.

"Well, according to Lavenza, those shadows are manifestations of cognitions that human society at large holds on to. Myths and legends given form, if that makes any sense. And every time I took them in as a Persona, I essentially assumed that legend, which is part of society's identity, as an aspect of my own personality. Some of those represent urban legends, and gods and monsters were created by people trying to come up with an explanation for why things were the way they were without the ability to scientifically prove it."

"Cognition is a powerful force if you think about it," Morgana said.

"I mean, yeah, it gave birth to something that tried to fuse the Metaverse with reality. Can't imagine something more powerful than people's despair and laziness creating a reality-warping god."

Ren looked down. "But... I wonder. Did we really get rid of the Metaverse when we killed Yaldabaoth?"

Morgana shook his head. "I don't think so. We destroyed Mementos, and the MetaNav is gone, but I still think the Metaverse is out there somewhere. You can't get rid of human cognition entirely, after all. If the Metaverse were destroyed for good, we'd probably have triggered a mental shutdown in every human on Earth." He shuddered, then said, "a-and since that didn't happen, then no, I don't think we destroyed it completely. Just the palace representing the public's warped desires."

Futaba perked up. "So, does that mean the Phantom Thieves might be back in business someday?"

But Ren closed his eyes and said, "I don't think we should ever be necessary ever again."

"Huh? Why's that?"

"Because I just want to go back home, work on getting my life back on track, and fix society's problems without resorting to forcibly changing people's minds and almost dying."

"Go back home..." Futaba trailed off. "...that's in a few weeks, huh?"

"Yeah," Ren sighed. "Can't believe this year went by so fast. My life changed so much, and I met all of you and brought us together."

Futaba looked at him. "You gave me my life back and taught me how to live again. Life's not gonna be the same for me after my Key Item leaves."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll manage," Ren chuckled. "You hit the street and talk to people almost every day now instead of being cooped up in that room, and even then you leave the blinds open now and open the window to get air. And it's not like I can't come back and visit every so often."

Futaba smiled. "Ehehe. I guess not." She thought for a moment, then asked, "say, Ren, are there any legends in your hometown?"

"My hometown? Well, just outside of town there's a forested mountain, and partway up that mountain is this old, abandoned shrine. People say that anyone who goes near it disappears and never comes back, so everyone says it's haunted. I hiked there once the summer before this all started, and the place was overgrown with weeds and the inside had lots of gang graffiti on the walls."

"Ooooooh, sounds interesting! I guess I'll just have to come visit you and see for myself!"

Ren lightly smiled. "Yeah..."

The three spaced of, before Futaba broke the silence by saying, "well, this game isn't gonna play itself." She popped it into the console and turned on the TV. "So, what should I do? Law? Chaos? Neutral?"

Ren smirked, "well, given that I shot an evil God in the head in order to save Christmas, it'd be pretty weird if we did Law. So, Neutral or Chaos I guess."

"Alright!" Futaba grinned wickedly. "Time to kick some angel butt!"

And with that, she turned on the console...

**_TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF TURN IT OFF_ **

"GEEEAHHAH!" Futaba squealed as she jumped back and squeezed Ren.

"WHA, HUH?!" Morgana shrieked as his tail puffed up.

After panting for a few seconds, Futaba said, "ha...ha... that... that was AWESOME!" She smiled as she got off of Ren. "See, the legend is real!"

"Seems like it," Ren said. "Should we turn it off?"

"Nah, let's leave it for a bit and see if it does anything." Futaba whipped out her phone and took a picture of the screen.

The three of them looked at the screen, then looked at each other again. "Urban legends sure are something, huh? Wonder if the public's cognition made it real?"

"Maybe..."

Ren looked at Futaba.

"Hm?" she wondered.

"Hold me like that again."

Futaba blushed. "That's, ahm..."

Silence, then a light giggle.

"Hehe..." Futaba got close and hugged Ren again.

"I love my key item," she said cheekily as Ren patted her head.

In the end, Futaba played Chaos.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little one-shot for your reading pleasure.
> 
> By the way, this is a real urban legend, that certain first-run copies of the original Shin Megami Tensei had a hyper-low chance of booting with this screen instead of the game.


End file.
